[00:00:00] Speaker A: Busy day here in Fayetteville. We'll talk Razorback basketball with Anthony Christensen on his way back from the Bahamas. Ethan Westerman in Studio 2. This is the first day of the Razorback football preseason practice. We'll get his thoughts on what to watch this week on the practice field. Well, to tell you that, our podcast is brought to you by Eglin's Best in Arkansas. Greatness starts early, before the pads go on, before the crowd roars, the day begins at the breakfast table. Eglin's Best delivers superior nutrition with more vitamin D and less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can start strong with with Eglins Best Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. For more information eglinsbest.com we're also brought to you by Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at Bentonville Glass.
Appreciate you watching wherever you are. We put our video on our YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook.
We also have an audio podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Just search whole hog sports on any of those platforms. Anthony Christensen is on his way back from the Bahamas right now. He's in the Miami airport. We think the fire alarms have stopped there.
Anthony, say hi.
When you look back on what Arkansas did and we'll get this little, we will preface this with you got to remember the competition, you got to remember it's the summer, all of these things.
But what was the big takeaway as you watched Arkansas over the last several days?
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway I had was, you know, you heard all summer leading into this past week about how good this team can be defensively. And I think that is really the big takeaway is how good they they looked on the defensive end. I mean, you look at the amount of turnovers they force, the amount of shot, the amount of every game they they held their opponent to, you know, poor shooting percentage, you know, blocks, steals, forced turnovers, everything like that. Like you said, some of that does kind of come down to the fact that they're playing against competition that, you know, not necessarily what you're going to see, you know, come November.
But, you know, it's still, you know, your first games against outside competition. Some of those teams, you know, have played with each Other, you know, a good amount in the past. I think you look at the early bits of that game against Carleton University, the defending Canadian national champion, and you could see, you know, that team had experience playing together and you know, it took Arkansas a little bit of time to get, you know, fully footed into that game just because, you know, this only the second time Arkansas played together. And you know, eventually, you know, that was, you know, I don't remember, you know, what the final margin was, but it was a blowout. All the games were, were blowouts. The average margin of, of, of win for Arkansas was, I think it was 46.3 points somewhere in that range. And yeah, but yeah, yeah, the big takeaway, long winded answer to say was, was the defense. And I was really impressed with, with the defense. I thought the ring protection for the most part looked good, you know, maybe a little bit to be desired on, on the defensive rebounding aspect of things.
But you know, I thought the rim protection looked good on ball defending. I mean, Jordan Smith is, he looked like everything he's advertised to be on that side of the ball. Bill Richmond, I thought, had some, some good moments defensively as well. And really, I mean, you could go down the line and say, you know, this player had this really nice moment on the defensive, on the defensive end. And yeah, I think that's the biggest takeaway is that they do look like a team that's going to be someone to be reckoned with on the defensive end.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: You know, we'll see how the rotation works out when the season comes around. When you're playing these games in the Bahamas and you're playing the type of teams that they're playing, you're going to play everybody.
But I think what I saw, and you got to keep in mind that Mika Marinin was not playing because he's got some eligibility questions that they think they're going to get worked out, but they just kind of held him out as a precaution.
It looks to me like they've addressed what have been like my two biggest gripes with this team for the last two years. Number one is the lack of depth where they're playing seven, eight man rotations and you have an injury or two and, and it can, it can really, really hurt you, especially late in the season when your legs are tired. You're playing every day at the SEC tournament or you're playing every other day at the NCAA tournament. I know they won the SEC last year, but the, that's been number one and then number two and what I think is. Has kind of been their downfall the last two years is this lack of size inside.
I don't know that they've got the big banger necessarily inside, but. But what they do have, they got a lot of length and that really jumped off the screen when you're watching them. And we talked last week about how they've got the six players who are 6 foot 11 or taller.
But it's not just them. I mean, like the wings, you think about J.J. andrews and Jordan Smith.
I mean, there's just a lot of wingspan. I think maybe is the big takeaway from watching them on the screen that, like you said, John Calipari likes the defensive prospects of this team. And, and I think it really begins with their length, their ability to get into passing lanes, deflect passes.
That, that really jumped off the screen. And again, they're playing overmatched teams. I get that. But that's going to translate into playing better teams, I would think, come November. December.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I would agree with that. I think, you know, I think you obviously saw, you know, the size come into play against a lot of these teams. A lot of these teams didn't really have the size to, you know, to really match up against Arkansas. The one that did, to a certain degree was p.
And I think you saw a lot of that game, especially in the second half. The first half of that game was. Was a bit messy, but the second half of that game, I thought you really saw Arkansas really just kind of put its, you know, pedal to the metal, whatever you want to say, and just kind of dominated that game. And I think a lot of it had to do with kind of adjusting to the physicality and to the size that they're playing against. And yeah, there were some, some bigger players on that team. So I think that's, that's definitely something that you saw in that. In this week or just overall. And like you said, I think the depth was. Was kind of there as well. You know, do I expect them to run, you know, an 11, 12 man rotation from November, December? I wouldn't, you know, some of these guys are. Are going to not play every game. And I think that's just the way. The way it just, it just works that way. Right. And plus you're gonna, you know, you're gonna get Mikamir in him back. Barring something completely unforeseen, which, you know, the staff seems very confident that he's going to be perfectly fine come November. So, you know, that would be. I would be surprised if anything happened to the contrary, not to say it's not possible because, you know, I, I think everything in college, college athletics right now is possible. But you know, once he comes back, assuming he does, and you know, once the rotation kind of turns down a little bit, you're going to see, you know, obviously that, that, that that depth is still there. You know, you get an injury or two and you can, you know, go deeper into, into the bench than you could last season or the season prior. Like, I think back to that road game at Alabama when they had the foul trouble.
And, and I don't mean any disrespect to, you know, Jaden Carol, Ottawa or Elmir Jovic, but when you're throwing those guys into high pressure situations like that, it's, and that game wasn't their fault by any means. But yeah, you would prefer to have guys who you trust more in high pressure situations, high pressure situations like that than those guys. And I think you probably, at least right now on paper, I think you have facts.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe the easiest way to put it, it's like number nine and number 10 on this roster is a lot better than number nine and number 10 were on the roster the last two years. This shouldn't be any surprise to people who've watched John Calipari's teams in the past, whether it be at Kentucky or last year with Acuff and Malik Thomas. It feels like Arkansas is going to go as far in the 26, 27 season as J.J. andrews and Jordan Smith can take them. They've got some, you know, I mean, they've got a lot of pieces around them. I like how Wilkinson shoots from the perimeter. Obviously, we, you know, we've talked ad nauseam about Billy Richmond on this program before, but it feels like this team is really built around Smith and Andrews and really just showcasing the versatility that those two have.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I was really, really impressed with J.J. andrews this week. So I, I mean, yeah, 18 points
[00:09:02] Speaker A: over the four games.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Yeah, when he was coming out of high school, I think the biggest thing that people were saying who needs to improve on is his shooting. And that was, it was a very immediately clear that, you know, his, his shot has improved quite a bit since he got to college.
And you know, that's a credit to him. That's a credit to the staff for working with him on that. Because it's not just, it's not just that the shot is falling against subpar competition. It's his shooting form also looks, I think, a lot better.
So I think, I think that's one thing that you look at immediately. And I think that he was. I mean, he was defensively, he was everywhere. And, you know, I think drive into the basket. You know, I thought he was really good. And we played with physicality, which is something that we've talked about Arkansas needing more of in the past.
And, yeah, I was. I was really impressed with him. And obviously Jordan Smith, everything, you know, he. He looked like he was everything as advertised this week. And, you know, I think that's, you know, a pretty accurate kind of portrayal of where things were this week is that, you know, those two were kind of the standout performers, if I'm not mistaken.
They played the first and second most minutes of anybody on the tour.
And yeah, I think those are the guys who you immediately saw and were like, yep, these are the main guys, at least as of now. You know, you add Mirin in into the equation and, you know, maybe that changes or maybe that changes throughout the rest of the summer. You know, we'll see.
But I, I was really impressed with those two. I was also really impressed with Abdu Jore.
You know, I thought he. I thought he was, you know, outstanding, you know, for the most part in these games. And I mean, like I said earlier, you could go down the line, you could pick out really good things that, that just about everybody did.
But, yeah, for those two, I was, I was really impressed, for sure.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Jordan Smith went out yesterday with an injury. Any concern there?
[00:11:05] Speaker B: I didn't seem so. I mean, we.
We asked about. I asked Brad Caliperi about it in the press conference, and he's just like, yeah, precautionary, which we saw them be precautionary with other injuries. I mean, the, The Jeremiah Wilkinson one in the first game, he did. He went out and didn't come back in. Billy Richmond, the pair maker, in the second game, came out and didn't go back in. So it's. It's just not worth the risk in the summer game to, you know, throw a guy back out there when, you know, you're not 100% certain that they're fine.
And, yeah, like, he returned to the bench and everything. He looks fine. Know, after the initial ball, he wasn't really moving gingerly or anything like that. So, yeah, yeah, I would imag. I would imagine he was fine.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Anthony's got a story on our website right now. He. He talked to John Wall, who was there, got some thoughts from him about Jordan Smith. I wonder, you know, it's like when Caliper it. He goes the extra mile to make sure that there's star power at his games.
You know, whether it's in Fayetteville, whether it's at Madison Square Garden, wherever they're playing.
It seems like there's, you know, there's somebody notable in the Sands a lot of times. And you get, you know, you get John Wall and you get Herschel walker. The last two days in the Bahamas.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, Herschel Walker.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Did you know that I.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: No.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: You know, I knew that Herschel Walker had entered. I knew he had entered the political field in the last couple of years. He ran for Senate in Georgia a couple, three years back.
It was like everybody was talking with this, just very matter of factly, oh, well, he's the ambassador to the. I had no idea.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: I had no idea.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: I think of Herschel Walker. I don't think of the Bahamas. I think of Larry Munson. Yeah. The Heisman Trophy.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: No. So it was funny. So Mike K. With the SID for the Arkansas men's basketball team. He walks up to me as we're just kind of walking in the hallway, just kind of getting ready to cover this game.
He's like, hey, you know, the. The US Ambassador to the Bahamas is going to be here. I was like, dude, that's cool.
It's like, you know who that is? I was like, not a chance. And he said, I think you do. I was like, mike, I. I have no IDEA who the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas is. He's like, it's Herschel Walker. I'm like, that Herschel Walker. So it was. It was a surprise. Got to talk to him a little bit, and, you know, he, you know, talk to him a lot, a little bit about diplomacy through sports, which I thought was a kind of a neat little conversation without getting too far into political stuff. But I thought, yeah, it was neat to talk to him and stuff. But anyway, John Wall.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: What. I know you talked more to assistant coaches while you're down there than you talked to John Caliperi, but you did get a chance to talk to him at the end of this yesterday. What was his big takeaway?
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah, his big takeaway was that, you know, they got what they wanted out of this trip, that he wants to continue making trips like this in the future, and that his big thing, the first thing he said was that the defense is what he thought it would be, which is, you know, which, you know, he's been talking about it, you know, all off season, is that, you know, the defense is going to be the calling card of this team. And you know, that will lead to, you know, opportunities on the offensive end as well. And one thing that I think, you know, hasn't necessarily been touched on a ton from this trip is that Arkansas still looks like it's wanting to play at a really high tempo. They were the 17th fastest team in the country last season. You know, they had over 70 possessions in each of the four games and over 80 and two of them.
Now, I wouldn't expect them to keep that tempo up against, you know, you know, the SEC competition or, you know, North Carolina, Arizona, Indiana, etc, but, you know, I think that shows that they still want to play fast. Probably be up in the upper 60s, lower 70s with regard to tempo coming into the new season.
And, you know, you add, you add that if you're assuming it, you know, plays out effectively because a high, a high tempo doesn't necessarily mean that you're winning games, but, you know, assuming that comes into effect effectively on the offensive end paired with the defense that, you know, everybody saw in the Bahamas, plus what everybody on the staff thinks it can be going into the season. And I think you're looking at, you know, a team with a lot of potential. So I think that's the big takeaway from, from that. And I think that was kind of his, his big takeaway as well.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Well, Anthony, I'll say this with everybody. Listen, you did a great job down there in the Bahamas. Your, Your coverage is really good.
At least a dozen stories or more on our website at whole hog sports.com
[00:15:50] Speaker B: it was like 25 or something, man. I, I didn't mean to shortchange it.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Yeah, you can read.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: I.
Yeah, I'm tired.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: You can read all of Anthony's coverage at our website, whole hog sports.com. anthony, have a safe drip home.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: I'll do my best. But first, but first want to say, obviously thank you to all subscribers because we can't, we can't do trips like this without, without, without that subscriber sponsors. So thank you to everybody who does, who subscribes and sponsors because. Yeah, right. I mean, this was an incredible opportunity for me, obviously, but I think, I think it was worth us being there just because I think we got a lot of really good content out of it as well. So. Yeah, thanks, everybody.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Yeah, certainly. Have a safe trip, Anthony.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: I just want to follow up on what Anthony said. You know, it is because of the subscribers that we're able to send him all over the place to cover basketball. I don't know that people have noticed, but we have really Put a lot of emphasis into basketball coverage the last few years.
You know, we sent him everywhere. I mean, Anthony has been all over the place. I know you've been there some too. Ethan covering basketball with him.
You know, it's amazing. It's, you know, Muscleman took basketball like he woke up the giant, so to speak, and then Calipari's come in here and I mean, it feels like the old days in terms of just the demand and like that appetite from. From people for basketball content that it just seems like they can't get enough.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's Arkansas basketball. Like, it's crazy that we're starting fall camp football today. And, you know, in a lot of SEC schools, that's just the big talk. But it's like people haven't gotten over the basketball craze this year.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: I had that same thought. I opened the newspaper app this morning and, you know, we've got football coverage in there, but it's on page two, like above the fold, top, you know, top story. Basketball in the Bahamas.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: And this, I don't think it's. This is not like an intentional slight towards football. It's just we're saying people have the basketball craze.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: It's one of those basketball wins.
Football hasn't won a whole lot. I mean, you know, I don't like to get into that whole football school, basketball, school, debate, because I think it's goofy, but it's, you know, people gravitate toward a winner and, you know, there's a lot of interest, I think right now in what this basketball team's going to do.
Football could.
They could potentially, you know, divert some eyes away from it, depending on if they have a better year than what people are projecting them to have. They start practice this afternoon over at the practice field south of Razorback Stadium.
Let's start here. Ryan Silverfield spoke on Monday. And I tell you, the thing that really stood out to me from his press conference is I expected him to say there's a quarterback battle. That doesn't surprise me because I think they're wanting to push K.J. jackson. They're wanting to push A.J. hill. Whether or not this is coach speak, we will see. The fact that he said it is a neck and neck quarterback competition really made my ears perk up because coming out of the spring, the feeling that I had and I wasn't there, you know, to watch the practices because I was covering baseball, but based on, you know, just. Just kind of reading the reports, listening to the people who were there, the Feeling that I got was that K.J. jackson was quite a bit ahead of A.J. hill. So again, maybe this is coach speak. Maybe this is trying to push them both to, you know, just be really competitive in camp. Or maybe A.J. hill has taken some big strides over the summer. I guess we'll see when they get out on the practice field this week.
But did that stand out to you? Because it certainly felt like Jackson was the front runner, kind of the clear front runner coming out of the spring.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that in the press conference, like, we knew he's not going to change his tune from two weeks ago at SEC media days, that it's going to be a quarterback battle, you know, throughout fall camp.
But, you know, all the questions kind of got out of the way about the quarterback battle. And then it was kind of toward the end when he mentioned the neck and neck, it was kind of like a delayed update on how close he at least to saying it is. Like you said, maybe it's just, you know, a facade to get him to. To go harder. Maybe they actually do have somebody who they feel like is very much in the driver's seat and they just want to keep pushing him. But he doesn't strike me as a guy who just says a lot of. He. He shoots you pretty straight. I think on most things, I think that if he's saying it's a neck and neck battle, it's actually pretty close.
We. We'll see what fall camp determines. I think that the biggest things I'm watching for with that in fall camp is just who looks like they can, like, run the offense better, like, who's not making the silly mistakes, who's just looking sharper. And I think that, you know, maybe it'll become clearer as we go a little bit deeper into fall camp. If this really is neck and neck or maybe we'll start seeing one of the two go with the ones a lot more. But certainly, at least going into fall camp, they've got. They've got us thinking it's a close one.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: And the indication we got, I don't think that. I think there's quite a bit of gap between 2 and 3. But the indication that we got was that Hank Hendricks is maybe their number three quarterback right now.
[00:20:41] Speaker C: Yeah, that was kind of, you know, brought up early. He just mentioned Hank Hendricks when asked about, you know, what would tip the scale between the other two, and he's like, you know, Hank Hendricks is doing great. There's also Braden Fuller. He transferred from, I believe, angelo state's a D2 team. So, uh, he's like a older guy and then you've got a younger guy with Hank Hendricks, who I guess are now battling it out for that three spot, which we know is an important role to have because it's might not even be for this year necessarily. But whoever's in that number three spot, you go into usually the next spring talking about backup or maybe even if they were really, you know, really progress, you know, can they push the starter? I think that for Hank Hendricks to be brought up this early is a good thing for him.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not one of those things where we think he's going to play this year, maybe not even at all. I guess you don't have red shirts anymore, so that's, that's not necessarily a consideration. But I think it does speak to the fact that maybe he's.
He's further along possibly than. Than maybe the thought was that he would be at this point in time. Yeah, he's not real old.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: He's not at all. And I think that, you know, a really successful week one against Alabama A and M would be getting to play three quarterbacks. And that's when it becomes interesting to see takes if he would be the one to take the field.
I was looking at box scores for the past three years against FCS teams, and Arkansas's played at least two quarterbacks every single time because they've beaten the brakes off of. But last year, or maybe a few years ago was the first time that they'd only played two. They're usually playing three quarterbacks in those fcs, FCS games, which I figure most SEC teams are because those games are not even competitive. But I'll be curious to see, you know, if we get to where we're seeing the threes against North Alabama, I think. Did I call them Alabama A and M?
[00:22:28] Speaker A: If you did, we'll forgive you.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: That was the first team last year.
[00:22:31] Speaker C: That was the first semester. It's North Alabama this year. So we'll see against North Alabama if Arkansas can handle business to where you can get the threes some reps. Certainly it would be a bad sign if they aren't handling business against them.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Silverfield kind of poured a little bit of cold water on one of our favorite theories around here, which is that if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have a quarterback.
He said a lot of people believe that. He said he's not one of those who does believe that.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that especially that's going to be your tune whenever you have a quarterback battle like this to where the question is, you know, I kind of agree with the adage of that, but like, in a realistic, in a, you know, a perfect world, I guess you do have such good starter and backup or like two competing for the starting job that you feel confident that you could win with both of them. I think that we're so used to in recent years there being such a big drop off. Like, I think about that year whenever it was K.J. jefferson and Malik Hornsby, like, I. You didn't want, like to have to get to the backup most of the time. I think that if you have two really good options, though, like, you know, I guess, yeah, it's if you have two that can lead the offense, like, why not, you know, instill a little bit of confidence in them by saying stuff like that.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Another big story on Monday. Maurice Gleaton is a, he's a sprinter on the track team. He just transferred in from Georgia a couple of months back and he's joining the football team. So they're going to have two of the track sprinters. I talked to Doug Case this week. He said that Maurice Gleaton and Jelani Watkins are, quote, the two fastest humans in the NCAA right now. Now, I know everybody says, well, there's track speed, there's football speed. And I get that. And there have been a lot of track people, you know, and it's. I was talking to somebody yesterday, too, who also made a good point. It's like there are track athletes who play football and there are football players who run track. And every now and then you get that special one who they can do both. You know, the C.J. spiller, the Jeff Demps, you know, there just aren't a whole lot of those that trended. Holliday at LSU several years ago was really good in both sports, but usually you're a lot better in one than you are. Like Isaiah Satania, he was a really good track athlete at Fayetteville High School.
He was a football player. He was a football player running track. He just happened to be faster than everybody else on the track, and that's why he's gravitated more. Or he has gravitated to football and has become a big star over at OU now. But it's interesting to see these two guys going to be on the team, you know, receivers, an area where I think they probably lack a little bit of depth. And so you bring these two in. Watkins. I feel like Watkins is more of a football. I'm not Saying he's more of a football player than a track athlete. But certainly I think he's maybe got a little bit more football chops than Gleaton does. Gleaton didn't play football at Georgia previously. He hasn't played in a couple of years since his high school senior season down in the Atlanta area. But man, when you get two big, you know, as they call them, world class sprinters on a football team like this, it's interesting to see how they're going to adapt to the football field and how Arkansas might be able to use them because neither of these guys went through spring practice with the team.
[00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah, and I mean even in just like route concepts, if you have a fast guy, it can maybe divert attention away, you know, like pull somebody away. I think that there's some ways that you can use speed to manipulate what a defense needs to do.
But no, I think you're right that it's like we'll learn quickly if these are guys just to. That can actually contribute football. Like I think Jordan Anthony, when he played football at Arkansas, he caught one touchdown. It was against, he was more of
[00:26:13] Speaker A: a track athlete who was playing football.
[00:26:14] Speaker C: Yeah, it was, he was against a, it was against that Mississippi State team that just could not defend.
But. And you saw a speed flashed then certainly on that touchdown.
But that's really the extent I think that we saw him in football. And it's actually funny, I bumped into SEC media days just hanging out in the meal room. Anthony Evans, he's the receiver for Mississippi State who had a huge game against Arkansas last year. He used to, he was committed to Arkansas and I think he was, he was the same class as Isaiah Satania and both were like regarded as like big track guys. But I just looked, we just talked a little bit and I said, oh yeah, you were committed to Arkansas at one point. He said, yeah, me and Satania on the same team would have been crazy just talking about their track speed. But I think those are two guys that certainly. I don't think Evans runs track at Mississippi State, but two guys that have like taken off in their football careers that have that track speed. But I think that you get guys that maybe are the upper echelon track like Jelani Watkins has proven, like Jordan Anthony proved. Or maybe you know, you need to chase the track a little bit harder because that's where you can get, you know, more professional opportunities. But every once in a while, like you said, there will be one that can do both. It's just. Is Arkansas going to catch Lightning in a bottle with one of these that they're taking a chance on because it's not like Gleaton wasn't like he was a three star football recruit. It's not like he's just somebody who is deciding, maybe I want to try football. He was getting recruited for both sports as well. I think he had at least two,
[00:27:41] Speaker A: I think Georgia, Georgia Techsack and South Florida.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: Those were like the main.
Yeah, those were the Most, the biggest 3, 24, 7.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: His high school year they rated him a three star wide receiver recruit number 138 receiver in the country. This was in the class of 2025. His senior year he played at Langston Hughes right outside of Atlanta and he got 21 passes for 747 yards. That's an average of about, about 35 and a half yards per catch.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So, you know, maybe they get one of these track guys to be a big play machine that can get them, you know, that, that really explosive play. But it also, like sometimes, like I said, I think that you can have just speed on the field and it opens up things for other, you know, things with your route concepts.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Gleaton, by the way, is the American record holder in the 100 meters for a high school athlete. He ran 9, 92 as a senior at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championship. So I mean, this is. He didn't have a great year at Georgia last year. Doug Case told me that he was dealing with a lot of hamstring stuff. He said they brought him in, they looked at his hamstrings, did some MRIs, made sure everything was fine there. He said basically what happens is when you are a big time sprinter, he said that year that you go from your high school senior year to your freshman college year can be really tough because, you know, you're competing against such a higher level athlete and you know, you just, you have to learn how to take care of your body and get yourself, you know, ready to race from event to event.
And he said it's a learning process for those guys. But Gleaton, I mean, big time, I think big time track potential on this guy. And of course, Jelani Watkins was really good on their national championship teams last year. I think he won three conference titles.
He medaled in three events at the NCAA meets. Should have meddled in another. We had Doug Case in here several weeks back talking about, you know, what happened with him during the prelims of the 200 at the, at the NCAA outdoor meet when, when it, you know, didn't go his way. But a lot of track potential with these two. We'll see how it works with the football.
With the football team.
Maybe. Maybe Arkansas had some guys who. And again, it might be a track guy going to football. It's usually more of a football guy coming to run track. But they've had some instances where they've had guys who have been really good football players who have also been really good track athletes. I think about. Kobe Hamilton was a really strong sprinter for them and Batman Carroll, I think Michael Grant had.
I think he went both ways. So they've had some success with this. We'll see if they have success with these two.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: Yeah. And receivers a room that, you know, they're looking for people to emerge. There's some, you know, I think top options that we're kind of looking at right now, but I think that there's plenty of like, competition going on there for. For guys who can get some snaps. So maybe one of these guys can actually get in the mix.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Let's see, your coaches poll came out yesterday, the USA Today preseason coaches poll. That is Arkansas's got seven opponents who are in the top 25. And of course, this is preseason top 25. There's no guarantee these teams are going to be ranked when the race backs play them, but they are. Georgia at number three.
They've got Texas at number four, Texas A&M at number eight. LSU is 13, Tennessee is 18, Utah. They'll probably be ranked when Arkansas plays them. They're number 21 in the preseason poll. And then Missouri is number 25. I think there's like some sort of running joke out there that Missouri is always number 25, 24, 25 in the preseason poll.
[00:31:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: It just seems like that's kind of the spot that's. That's reserved for them.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like you look at their. I think they're consistently viewed in the preseason as like a seven or maybe eight win team. You're like, ah, they're in the SEC seven or eight win team. Throw them toward the end of the top 25. And you know, I mean, more often
[00:31:30] Speaker A: than not under Drinkwoods they have been. Especially in the last three or four years, they have played like a top 25 team, if not much better.
[00:31:37] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. It's just funny that they. They do always seem to start there. That's like the starting point. Well, it wasn't always under Drinkwitz, but in recent years. Yes.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Yeah. No, they've done a good job, you know, here in the last few years. Of really elevating that program to, you know, higher than it was his first two or three years there.
The big story this week in college sports is this federal court decision in Colorado last Friday that as of now, it's going to give any of the class of 2022 players who had or high school seniors, class of 22 seniors who have a year or who had not completed their fifth year. I guess maybe it's the best way to say it, none of them would have completed their fifth year.
Any of them who had ran out of eligibility, maybe that's the best way to put it. It'll give them another year of eligibility with this injunction that was granted by a federal court judge in Colorado, ncaa, the expectation, if they have not already, they're going to appeal this.
And. But it certainly looks like right now, if you were a high school senior in the class of 2022 and your college eligibility ran out in the spring or last fall, you know, regardless, or just, you know, whenever your season was, you're going to have an opportunity to play again this year. Now, there's. There's a lot of, I feel like red tape that has to, you know, that you have to cut to be able to make this work. Number one, does your team want you back? Were you in the transfer portal? Well, if you weren't in the transfer portal, you probably can't go somewhere else. If you were in the transfer portal, maybe they can take you. And everybody's real hesitant right now just to see, you know, what is the final ruling going to be from that appellate court. But, you know, Brian Silverfield, for football purposes, he said, you know, we're just going to kind of evaluate some things and see what happens.
I think there'd only be like four players who fit this criteria, and really the only one I feel like Ethan, who, if you look at them and you say that might make a little bit of sense, is Caleb Wooden, defensive back. And the reason I say it might make a little bit of sense, number one, I don't know if he wants to continue to play football. I don't know. You know, I don't know where he is in his life, but he did play at Auburn on a defense coordinated by Ron Roberts. And it would feel like because he, you know, he played here last year, you know, he had some success. I mean, like, like everybody in the. In the secondary, he had a lot of moments that I'm sure he'd like to have back. But he did play here last year, and he does have that experience in A Ron Roberts defense for a couple three years.
That seems like the one player that, that might make sense here. If again if he wants to play, if they can get him held, if they, you know, if everything works out and they can get him on the team.
[00:34:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it's such a tricky thing to even figure out who this might could possibly like people who could benefit from this ruling and get another year because first of all, football's one of those sports where guys redshirt very often like early in their career to where it's hard to get a guy who's only played four seasons that was a senior because it means that they actually can.
It does mean they're probably an impact person to bring back for a fifth year because they were good enough to not need to redshirt one of their first. I say good enough or maybe just the team they were on. They needed them to not redshirt early in their career.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Christina wrote this yesterday. She said there were only four players who would fit within the parameters that have been outlined in this federal court ruling. They were Rohan Jones, Danny Saeele, Caleb Wooden and Larry Worth. Jones and Worth have signed NFL free agent deals. So that automatically takes them out of the equation because there was some, some follow up this week that you know, they don't want players who have been in an NFL minicamp jumping back into college because I think it's a better opportunity.
[00:35:28] Speaker C: Yeah. And I, I think I brought this up to our. On Monday whenever we were kind of talking about it, our group that those were the only four that I could see there being any sort of possibility and of them, most of them had signed something to where it's like things can always change I guess with what you've. You're con. Like I don't know. There's probably a lot of fine print going on as far as like, for lack of a better term of like what can qualify for being able to do this? Like have you participated in stuff? I don't know but it seems like there's. Caleb Wuden is the only one of the four who wouldn't. He hasn't signed anything. So it seems like it would be a very obvious this could work type of situation.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: It feels like.
And you know, if he were to come back to the football team, I feel like he's more of a depth position piece than anything. It feels like this has the potential to impact non football sports a lot more than it can impact football.
You know, I mean think about maybe track and field. You know, did they have some Guys who were scorers on their team last year who have still been working out here in town, who, you know, maybe they get another opportunity to run for the track team. Again, you mentioned Talia Jones, a women's basketball standout. You know, I mean, she would fit within these parameters. You know, maybe. Does she want to come back and play basketball? We don't know. You know, I mean, you think about baseball.
I don't know that the Razorback baseball team have anybody who would qualify. I think there's some gray area about, you know, players who were in independent leagues. I did see something where like an entire independent league team quit the other day or they forfeited their game so that they could, like, potentially be able to get back. Those players could potentially be able to get back into the college system for a fifth year.
So it's going to be interesting to see.
I feel like it could have a much bigger impact, though, on. On sports, but it just feels like it's so close to, obviously, the football preseason, you know, and these players wouldn't have gone through spring camps. And it just doesn't feel like it could be real impactful to football.
[00:37:31] Speaker C: And it's just, I think, especially for a program like Arkansas, like, just the nature of how more often than not people redshirt their. Their true freshman year in football. Like, it's maybe how many a year. Don't take the red shirt. Like, I. I know Braylon Russell's one in his group that played as a freshman didn't need a red shirt, but, like, I feel like it's very rare right now for somebody to just go straight into their sophomore season without any additional red shirt tags on them.
And to where football's. Obviously, that's what we're going to talk about right now because the season starts so soon. How could it affect the upcoming season? But it really does seem to me like out of all the sports, the one that red shirting is just more just normal. It's almost standard for a lot of these athletes to have red shirted. So it really narrows down who could even possibly be an athlete, that this would fit the criteria. Then it's like, do you have the roster space?
There's just a lot. A lot of layers. But I do think in some of these other sports where it's like more. More often than not, you know, in basketball, a player's not red shirting unless they had an injury.
They're. They're just taking their season into where I think, like a player like you mentioned Talia Jones on Women's basketball, like, she's only played four years and she was the ninth leading scorer in the SEC last year, average 17. They have one open roster spot right now, and they kind of don't have anybody on their roster right now who's just a. Like, it's. The question's kind of who will fill the scoring load. Like, somebody like that could completely change your team's outlook if it fits Football, it's kind of probably going to be hard to find that one true major difference maker because, number one, there's more people on the field at the same time to where. Like, in general, football, you know, it's such a Darius. You don't have your Darius a cuff usually in football that can put you on their back.
So it's, it's. I think in some of these other sports that there's a smaller amount of players on the field at the same time or, you know, in a track where you can get like a huge score for you, it just looks different. I'll be curious to see. I hate it. I honestly hate it for these athletes right now that are just kind of stuck in this purgatory of like, do we plan our life right now and go on to my adult stuff? Like, do I need to be stopping the job interviews right now? Like, I just don't know what that looks like for them because they're just kind of sitting in no man's land waiting on what do I do in a month.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: There's a bunch of people who were in a cubicle who want to pack up that cubicle and get back into the, you know, into the gym or wherever and get another season of college if they can get it.
[00:39:54] Speaker C: I honestly feel bad for the athletes who were like, super on top of it and had a job lined up for right after they got done with school because they knew that they weren't gonna go pro. And now it's like, like, it's almost like maybe you would have rather to not have things materialized yet. So where you can weigh your options a little bit. I just think it's a really. Especially with the. I mean, school starts at 12 days from now at the U of A. We are like very, very close to these people. Need to know what they're doing to be eligible to where you hope that this decision making with the appellate court goes pretty swiftly. Because, I mean, in all honesty, unless this isn't figured, if this is figured out any later than like a week or so, you're going to be telling athletes to pack up their Stuff and get their. It's going to be like a coaching hire whenever they are there for a few days, just living in the Airbnb or whatever, while they figure out how to actually get moved because school is right around the corner.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: The lawyers might laugh at me when I say this. I feel like injunctions typically are granted to give the court more time to study the facts of the case.
So I kind of get the feeling that it would be unlikely that an appellate court would overturn an injunction. But we'll see. It does feel like the momentum there is there for the class of 22 seniors to get another year. And you know what? Frankly, I get it.
[00:41:14] Speaker C: I do, too.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: They came in behind these two classes of 20 and 21 who both got Covid years and then everybody 23, and after they get a fifth year moving forward. I did see some talk the other day about whether or not this was kind of an intentional pawn by the NCAA to be leveraged in the, you know, the legislative discussions to get this, you know, this Protect College Sports act passed. That would be a level of foresight from the NCAA that we have never seen before.
If they thought, hey, you know what? This might. We know this is going to get challenged and this is going to go through the legal system and this is going to help us, you know, kind of as an 11th hour type deal
[00:41:58] Speaker C: of like, look what college sports is right now.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: Right. Get everybody on board.
That seems very like that. That's a level of chess at the NCAA has never played before, but who knows?
[00:42:08] Speaker C: Yeah, this would be like me showing up to the park and all of a sudden you're hitting three pointers in my eyes and I'm like, where did that come from? You know, it's. It's not on the scouting report for them, but hey, maybe they pulled one out of their sleeve, turned back the clock a little bit and got a little savvy with it. But yeah, no, I think that it certainly is one of the. Like, I felt like this past week with all that coming out, it was like the manifestation of what everybody's saying is this is the wild, wild west and it needs figured out because it's impacting people very immediately.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: In the same way that before we had Anthony on, I said that, you know, you have to take the results in the Bahamas with a little bit of a grain of salt because of the competition they're playing. I will say this with, you know, any football preseason coverage in the next few days, keep in mind, these guys are out there in their helmets, basically.
No pads for a few more days. And then once they even get to pads, it's kind of like an escalation to where they get to full pads.
So keep that in mind over the next few days. A couple other items before we get out of here. Chris Bucknham, the longtime Arkansas track and field coach, he was elected to the US Track and Field and Cross Country Association Coaches hall of Fame yesterday. This is the big one for track coaches. He's the third Arkansas head coach to go into this hall of Fame along with John McDonnell and Lance Harder. He's going to be formally inducted December 15th at the annual coaches convention. I talked to him yesterday. He's like, you know, I'm retired. I wasn't going to go to this this year. Now he's going because he's going to be inducted into the hall of Fame. This is the fourth hall of Fame that Bucknham has been inducted into.
Also in the Missouri Valley Conference hall of Fame. He used to be at Northern Iowa. He's in the Northern Iowa hall of Fame.
Also as an athlete in the Norwich University Athletics hall of Fame. That's his alma mater in Vermont. Kind of curiously, Ethan, he's not in the Arkansas Sports hall of Fame and he's not in the UA Sports hall of Honor. He's the only retired national championship winning coach for the Razorbacks who's not in either of those hall of Fames.
I have a feeling that once they see the national hall of Fame has beaten them to the punch, the local hall of Fames will get him in there.
[00:44:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I think these Arkansas hall of Fames, it should snowball because he deserves to be in.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: It's one of those, why is he not in there already?
[00:44:28] Speaker C: I think that's a question with a lot of things that are getting addressed these days. I know John Calipari's been all on the like, why are these guys not honored? I think that it's kind of one of those stones that are getting turned recently.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: With Anthony on his way back from the Bahamas, I'm gonna be out at the soccer field tonight, kind of pinch hitting in that role, covering the soccer team. They're number 10 in the preseason coaches poll, 10th nationally. And they're gonna start their exhibition season tonight taking on Missouri, Kansas City, I think. Are they the Kangaroos still or are they just the Roos now?
[00:44:58] Speaker C: I think they're just the Roos.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Okay, well, they were the kangaroo. It was one of the first. One of the first games whenever I got up here 20 something years ago that I covered was a women's basketball game between Arkansas and umkc and I had no idea they were the kangaroos. Yeah, that's a lot of fun to ride.
[00:45:12] Speaker C: Yeah, they've just shortened it to the Roos and they're like ualr. Also where they were, they've changed. They're just Kansas City. The Kansas City Roos.
I found that one out last year when they played here that they prefer just Kansas City.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: So it's gonna be 6 o' clock over at Razorback Field tonight. The Razorbacks and the ruse in the first soccer exhibition game. We'll have coverage of
[email protected] we got stories across the board. I mean, basketball, baseball, football, obviously, you name it. We've got a lot of coverage at our website, wholehogsports.com hope that you'll join us there. We'll be back for another podcast next week. Hope to see you then. Have a great weekend, everybody.
